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Judge Dismisses Pulse Survivors' Suit Against Social Media Companies

Pulse nightclub

The plaintiffs contended that Twitter, Facebook, and Google "aided and abetted" the shooter's radicalization, but a judge didn not agree.

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A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by Pulse shooting survivors and victims' families against social media companies, which the plaintiffs alleged had aided in gunman Omar Mateen's radicalization.

In U.S. District Court in Michigan, where the suit was filed, Judge David M. Lawson Friday issued an order to dismiss the suit against Facebook, Twitter, and Google, the Orlando Sentinel reports. It came the same day that a jury in a Florida federal court acquitted Mateen's widow, Noor Salman, of aiding and abetting his crime at the Orlando gay nightclub, where he killed 49 people and wounded 53 before dying in a shootout with police June 12, 2016.

Four survivors of the shooting and family members of nine victims sued the media companies in December 2016, claiming the companies knew "that ISIS members and its official news outlets use numerous accounts" on their platforms to "publish the organization's messages and to recruit and 'radicalize' persons such as Mateen." Mateen pledged allegiance to the terrorist group - the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria - in a 911 call during the attack.

The plaintiffs contended the companies "aided and abetted" Mateen's radicalization. At Salman's trial, evidence was presented that Mateen did internet searches related to ISIS.

But Lawson was not convinced of a direct connection between the online material and the shooting. He "wrote in his dismissal that that there is no definitive evidence suggesting that the material Mateen saw online directly led to the attack, 'other than that the principles espoused in them motivated Mateen to carry out the dreadful act,'" the Sentinel reports. The judge concluded that Mateen developed the idea for the attack "in isolation, when he 'self-radicalized' by perusing Internet postings, and then acted on his self-informed radical sentiments."

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Trudy Ring

Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.
Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.